Little Did We Know the Times They Were a-Changin’ Us

So I’m on vacation last week, watching TV around midnight, when an infomercial came on commemorating this summer’s 25th anniversary of Woodstock. (Can there be more compelling proof of our nation’s spiritual decline than the fact that “Woodstock” and “infomercial” can now appear in the same sentence?)

Maybe I over-invested in the revolution, but it just seemed a bit bourgeois that “operators are now standing by” to help me experience Woodstock all over again. John Sebastian, Woodstock participant and lead singer of the Lovin’ Spoonful, was the info-host. John made it clear that I could relive the weekend at Yasgur’s farm that changed our lives forever . . . assuming I had my Visa or Mastercard available.

A day or so later, I was driving around and a radio station was playing the music of Buddy Holly to mark the 35th anniversary of his death. I don’t remember if the deejay specifically noted that Holly’s death changed our lives forever, but Don McLean said as much when he paid homage to it as “the day the music died,” in his 1971 song “American Pie.”

Then, a couple days later, I picked up the Sunday New York Times and read a front-page story on the Beatles. The article pointed out that this week (today, in fact) marks the 30th anniversary of the Fab Four’s first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show. Their performance on American television changed our lives forever, or as the Times put it, “. . . neither (the Beatles) nor America emerged from it the same.”

I had the same feeling of remembrance last fall while watching a Madison Square Garden gala celebrating the 30th anniversary of the release of Bob Dylan’s first album. A galaxy of rock and country music stars--and even ol’ Bob himself--spent the evening playing and singing songs from the vast Dylan catalogue. It was a sure-fire reminder to all of us who heard Dylan for the first time back in the ‘60s that our lives were about to be changed forever.

Wait, there’s more.

This year will mark the 40th anniversary of the first time a young man named Elvis Presley stepped into a recording studio. I won’t insult your intelligence by reminding you that was an event that changed our lives forever.

History also tells us that 1954 was the year when Bill Haley originally recorded “Rock Around the Clock,” a record that changed the face of popular music in America and that, yep, changed our lives forever. Stay tuned for details about any 40th anniversary events.

Twenty-five years ago, “Sesame Street” premiered. Yes, Captain Kangaroo had been on the scene long before that, but Bert and Ernie changed our lives forever.

As if Woodstock weren’t enough, 1969 also marked the release of the movie “Easy Rider.” You know what that means--a 25th anniversary memoriam can’t be far off. That was the movie that awakened a generation of pot-smoking hippies to the agenda of the Silent Majority, as Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper so graphically discovered at movie’s end. It also introduced a young Jack Nicholson to many moviegoers. The rest, of course, is history.

These anniversaries in 1994 couldn’t come at a worse time, following on the heels of the anniversaries of 1993. Topping that list, of course, was the 30th anniversary of President Kennedy’s assassination, and the 25th anniversaries of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King’s murders.

This summer promises to be anniversary-heavy.

In July, we’ll celebrate the 25th anniversary of mankind’s first steps on the moon. History wasn’t the same after that. Also, Ted Kennedy drove off the bridge 25 years ago this July, probably changing American politics in the 1970s.

Brace yourself for August.

On the 7th, it’ll be the 30th anniversary of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution that got the Vietnam War off and running. Then, just two days later, it’ll be the 20th anniversary of the day Richard Nixon resigned the presidency.

In case you forgot, both events changed our lives forever.

Clearly, we’re all going to be doing a lot of reflecting this year, given that we’re going to relive so many events that changed our lives. Speaking only for myself, I hope I have the energy to get through them.

At some point, maybe toward the end of the year, someone could ask the question: Just how often in one lifetime can our lives be changed forever?